Kieron Flanagan

Hola.

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose y yo impartimos una clase magistral en Madrid sobre la Geografía del Populismo y la "Venganza de los lugares que no importan".

¡Es divertidísimo! Inscríbete aquí:
www.fundacionareces.es/fundacionare...

Oh no, that’s really sad news.

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation

Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures".

Open panel submissions portal is open! ls!

Deadline: 2nd February 2026

www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

According to @politico.eu the UK wants to form a steel alliance with the EU to avoid collateral damage in a trade war with the US. www.politico.eu/article/brit...

A European steel alliance, now where have I heard that one before? 🤔https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community

The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration

Tremendous long read from @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social in the FT on the mysterious owner of the notorious Brittania Hotels group, Alex Langsam. on.ft.com/46B1bhO

(I appreciate this is not the biggest news breaking right now)

It should have been the elephant in the room, yet I am always struck by how few link discussion of the design and operation of the exercise and the allocation philosophy and process.

The REF announcement is really interesting, including because This is all very interesting, and in particular this:

I can’t recall the funding allocation mechanism (for England, which is already under review) being so explicitly discussed as part of the REF design before now.

Research leaders’ deficit fixes are a 1980s tribute act - Research Professional News Government’s priorities cast old debates about concentrating resources in a new light, says Kieron Flanagan

Are UK universities doing too much research? If so, what should we do about it? Debates about how to address the financial sustainability of university research have a familiar ring to them, as I write in @resprofnews.bsky.social

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-poli...

#scipolicy

A major new report published for anyone interested in #innovation, #productivity, #industrialstrategy, #econsky. I'll now do a short thread that pulls out the main findings and recommendations...

‘Computer says no’ in UK policy often boils down to ‘we already tried that and it failed’ in which half hearted and short term policy interventions that unsurprisingly failed are then used to justify future inaction for ever after

Indeed!

...but this is an issue not just for science and innovation policy groups within business schools, but for research in business and management more generally, which to many observers seems to be getting further and further away from any real policy or economy relevance)

(...Although there is a legitimate question about the effects of research assessment (RAE/REF + lists) and, ironically, the desire of business and management studies to be more 'scientific', in pushing research attention away from relevance and towards questions of rather abstract theory...

(As an aside, this means that it's a little ahistorical to suggest, as the authors do, that @mioir.bsky.social being based in @alliancembs.bsky.social has somehow diluted our interest in science, given our part origin in the newly-founded Manchester Business School)

And the foundation of the R&D Research Unit by Alan Pearson at the then new Manchester Business School in 1967, off the back of a grant from Harold Wilson's Ministry of Technology. (which led to the R&D Management journal and conference).

(It's also worth noting the role history of science and history of technology have played in at Manchester, e.g. through the work of Donald Cardwell at UMIST (from 1963) and, a little later, John Pickstone at the Victoria University of Manchester.)

The history of science & innovation studies at Manchester stretches back further than 1977! Dept of Liberal Studies in Science founded in 65-6, but even before that there was important work on science policy by Michael Polanyi, and on innovation by John Jewkes, Charles Carter and Bruce Williams.

Really interesting history piece accompanying launch of the UK #Metascience Unit's first report by @rorinstitute.bsky.social's James Wilsdon, @ludowaltman.bsky.social, Andre Brasil and the unit's own Ben Steyn

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685bcd...

One small correction though...

Looks great!

Image of an excerpt from the article, which reads: 'I've now seen the first instance of someone sitting there listening to a question, typing, then reading the answer off the screen' Dracott noted, adding the individual 'did not get the fellowship'

Interesting anecdote in this article on comments about potential future changes in UKRI's stance towards AI in the application/review process in Research Professional...

www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk...

honored to join this @historyofscience.bsky.social roundtable @kathrynolesko.bsky.social's invitation. my contribution "Make Silicon Valley Boring Again!" argues that today's broligarchs aren't just aberrant relative to you & me, but even relative to the history of Silicon Valley...

Photo of a part of a Nature article from 1987 describing proposals to divide the UK university system into teaching only and research universities.

This is a very 1980s #scipolicy debate! (Apologies for the @nature.com firewall, which seems bizarre for a short news article from 1987)

www.nature.com/articles/328...

EUROPEAN RESEARCH SECURITY: THREAT PERSPECTIVES AND THE RESPONSES OF POLICY MAKERS AND RESEARCH PERFORMING ORGANISATIONS

You can download the report itself here: research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publicati...

Research security in Europe needs a more coordinated approach - Research Professional News Survey of national efforts reveals uneven but developing picture, say Andrew James and Kieron Flanagan

Security fears are creating new pressures and expectations on national research systems across Europe. My @mioir.bsky.social colleague Andrew James and I have written a piece for @resprofnews.bsky.social summarising some key findings from our new report on the topic.
#scipolicy #security

(The Council lasted barely 5 years in its purpose built Terry Farrell designed joint UK headquarters building before moving to cheaper accommodation because of cost pressures…)

www.estatesgazette.co.uk/news/british...

Fury after organisation based in Manchester for 75 years shuts office The British Council has closed its Whitworth Street office

A cautionary tale for today’s public sector relocations? This was one of the flagship relocations of the early 90s - starchitect building and all. Of course the relocation itself was essentially driven by the need to cut costs…

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

EUROPEAN RESEARCH SECURITY: THREAT PERSPECTIVES AND THE RESPONSES OF POLICY MAKERS AND RESEARCH PERFORMING ORGANISATIONS

You can read our full analysis and our country case studies, here: bit.ly/4kLbXGt

Co-authors were Andrew James, @alicenaisbitt.bsky.social and John Rigby. Thanks to the UK Science and Technology Network for funding the study.

Finally, but most important of all, research system actors and policy-makers alike worry about how to balance research security against the significant benefits of open global scientific exchange, and about avoiding a chilling effect on international collaboration. (6/x)